“The FBI has designated 27 shootings in 2018 as active shooter incidents.” “10 of those 27 met our definition of a mass shooting”

Now, remember – in most states that allow civilian carry of firearms, maybe 2% of the population has a permit to carry; in permitless (“Constitutional”) carry states, I’d suspect the total carrying might be higher, but I’m going to also suspect the subsets of people willing to undergo the hassle and responsibility of carrying and the subset willing to go through the hassle and red tape of getting a permit are pretty close).

That’s about one person in fifty. Maybe more in some places; I’d imagine a pretty fair share of people in rural Wyoming, Kansas or even Minnesota might have a firearm on nor near their person much of the time. Definitely less in other places – California, Illinois, or any school, federal office or posted business.

Keep that in mind with this next set of stats:

In 5/27 incidents, citizens confronted the shooter. 3 of those 5 were unarmed and were successful in ending the shooting. In 2 of those 5, armed citizens possessing firearms permits exchanged gunfire with the shooter. In one of those incidents, armed citizens shot and killed the shooter (oklahoma)

So 2% of the population might have a firearm – but they were able to intervene in about 6% of active shooter situations last year – successfully in both cases:

It’s also worth noting that the other three episodes involving civilians included a wounded teacher subduing shooters. He was in an environment where 0% of the population could be legally armed. Salute.

It’s worth noting that nine of the episodes at businesses occurred in places where the public had access -including both episodes where armed civilians intervened. That’s 22% – not that percentages carry that much weight with numbers this small.

The other seven occurred in non-public parts of businesses; it’s not stated in the report how many were posted or otherwise no-go for law-abiding civilians

As to conclusions?

I stress – this next bit was written by the FBI. Not the Gun Owners Caucus. Emphasis added:

“As in past years, citizens were faced with split-second, life-and-death decisions. In 2018, citizens risked their lives to safely and successfully end the shootings in five of the 27 active shooter incidents. They saved many lives. Given this reality, it is vital that citizens be afforded training so they understand the risks they face and the options they have available when active shooter incidents are unfolding”

Since we’re assessing risk – all of the deadliest episodes – the Stoneman Douglas and Santa Fe NM schools and the Sutherland Springs Texas school shootings – took place in “gun free” zones where 0% of the people can lawfully be armed.

First things first – with regard to the massacre in Christchurch New Zealand, Berg’s 18th Law is in full effect: “Nothing the media writes/says about any emotionally charged event – a mass shooting, a police shooting, anything – should be taken seriously for 48 hours after the original incident. It will largely be rubbish, as media outlets vie to “scoop” each other even on incorrect facts.”.

But indications so far are that the attack was carried out by more than one person, whose motivations and “manifesto” seem at first blush strikingly similar to those of Anders Breivik, the Norwegian who murdered 70-odd Norwegians, mostly teens at a political summer camp; the killer/s seem to have been motivated to attack Muslims, specifically.

Note that while New Zealand’s gun laws aren’t as full-blown nanny as Australia’s, they are more in line with California’s or New York State’s – registration/licensing/permits to own, “universal” background checks, the works. Note to Governor Walz; get back to us about your “universal” registraiton bill.

So my thoughts and prayers to the Muslims of New Zealand. (And for those idiot progs on Twitter who mock and taunt the idea – yes, thought and prayer and taking a moment to think rationally is in fact more useful than the actions you propose in responding to this sort of thing).

But let’s make sure we’re clear on the real lesson, here: there was a Good Guy with a Gun at one of the mosques that was attacked, and God only knows how many lives the man saved:

BREAKING: The New Zealand Herald reports that the shooting at the second mosque was stopped by an armed Muslim who “chased the shooters and fired two shots at them as they sped off.” pic.twitter.com/BA2FzsXq2d

Again – with Berg’s 18th Law in mind – it would appear that the shooters had a lot more in common with the French Bataclan terrorists than with your garden-variety American “Gone Postal”-style spree killers. The limited, regulated availability of firearms in News Zealand was only marginally less effective in preventing terror and saving lives than France’s near-complete ban (and ocmplete ban, for that matter, on the military-grade guns that the Paris terrorists used).

Most of you know this already. Perhaps a few of it have heard it but don’t believe it.

But since Big Left and its subsidiary, the DFL, is busy trying to roll back the 2nd Amendment in Minnesota – with hearings coming up Wednesday in the Judiciary “Division” – it’s worth reinforcing the point for those who don’t know the facts:

So the below graphic does just that. Of all the active shooter events there were 33 at which an armed citizen was present. Of those, Armed Citizens were successful at stopping the Active shooter 75.8% of the time (25 incidents) and were successful in reducing the loss of life in an additional 18.2% (6) of incidents. In only 2 of the 33 incidents (6.1%) was the Armed Citizen(s) not helpful in any way in stopping the active shooter or reducing the loss of life.

The 911 call from the victim revealed that he was asleep at the time of the break-in and was woken up by the intruders, who he said were holding his mother at gunpoint. “They were trying to wake me up,” he said in the call. “They had my mom at gunpoint I couldn’t stop it.”The victim told the 911 operator that the men had arrived to his home in their own vehicle. He said he shot both of them, killing the driver, Smalls, and injuring Lynn who tried to leave on foot.

I’ve said it before, and I’m sure I’ll say it at least once a month until “Protect” MInnesota finally gets laughed out of polite company in this state: the local gun grab group and its arious leaders – the “Reverend” Nancy Nord Bence today, Rep. Heather Martens before her – have never, not once, made a single statement about guns, gun owners, gun laws, gun crime, gun history or the use of firearms that is simultaneously

Original

Substantial

True.

You get plenty of statements where one might be the case, and a few with two out of three. But never, not once, have they made or will they hit all three.

Ever.

This meme from last week is different, in that it doesn’t even get one out of three completely correct.

They’re fantasizing:

So let’s make sure the stage is set: you’re in a mass shooting, and the shooting is underway. “Several people have already been shot”, although the writer doesn’t see fit to mention that you could be one of them very, very shortly, here.

The writer doesn’t know much about exposition.

They know less, naturally, about gun laws: when they write “you pull out your gun and rush off to be a hero”, they apparently think Taken is a documentary. For better or worse, it’s bad legal (and, likely, tactical) form to go rushing to the sound of the guns.

Shooters know this.

The “Reverend” Nancy Nord Bence apparently does not.

Of the four resolutions they list?

The shooter sees you and shoots first: you mean, they do what the shooter will likely get around to doing, anyway, given that they’re a spree killer?

Do they really think the would-be “hero” is any worse off under this scenario?

Another good samaritan shoots you by mistake: That’s right – two good guys with guns, both seeing an active shooter, shoot the wrong person. It could happen, in the same sense that Nancy Nord Bence could make a coherent point. Again – given that one is likely going to get killed by the active shooter – which they seem to keep forgetting – I’m hard-pressed to see how the “heroes” are any worse off than if neither was armed.

Police see you “running around” and shoot you anyway: If the “hero” is “running around”, they’re doing it wrong.

You, the hero, shoot an innocent bystander: It could in theory happen. And if it does, the would-be hero would be in deep trouble, if the spree killer in the room doesn’t kill him first.

Thing is, you can look long and hard and never find an example of this happening, because good guys with guns tend overwhelmingly to do the right thing.

Indeed, except for the cops shooting the “Hero” (it’s happened), neither I nor, let’s be honest, the “Reverend” Nord Bence can think of any examples of any of those happening – certainly nowhere near as many as the heroes who’ve ended mass shootings.

Arizona man saves a state trooper’s life after an ambush on I-10 following a “shots fired’ radio call that led the officer to a crashed car and a mortally-injured woman:

[Arizona Department of Public Safety director Col. Frank Milstead] said as the trooper began blocking off lanes of traffic and laying out flares, he was ambushed by the suspect. The suspect shot the trooper in the right shoulder, and was “getting the better of the trooper” in a fight that immediately followed. Milstead said the suspect was on top of the trooper striking his head on the pavement. According to Milstead, a man traveling westbound on I-10 with his wife in the car, pulled over to help the trooper. The man retrieved a gun from his car and fired at the suspect after the suspect refused to stop attacking the trooper, Milstead said. The suspect died as a result of the shooting and the man called for help using the trooper’s radio, according to Milstead. In a news conference from the hospital where the trooper is being cared for, Milstead thanked the man who stopped to help.

If Nancy Nord Bence had her way, they’d still be scraping the trooper’s brains off the pavement.

Amid the carnage – orchestrated by terror group al-Shabaab – a lone SAS soldier got tooled up and went in after a request for help from Kenyan security forces, sources said.Incredible images showed the operator in jeans, trainers and body armour storming through doors and aiding injured, his face covered by a balaclava.He was pictured operating at the hotel alone. But he was joined in the mission by US Navy Seals, sources said.An insider said: “UK Special Forces always run towards the sound of gunfire. He was there training and mentoring Kenyan forces when the shout went up, so they went in.“During the operation he fired off some rounds – it’s a safe bet he hit his target – the SAS don’t miss.“He is a long serving member of the Regiment, there is no doubt his actions saved lives.”The incident was today declared over by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and all the attackers “eliminated”.

An armed citizen shot and killed a mass shooter at a restaurant in Oklahoma on Thursday after the gunman walked in and opened fire, hitting several people.

“A man walked into the Louie’s restaurant and opened fire with a gun. Two people were shot,” police said, CNN reported. “A bystander with a pistol confronted the shooter outside the restaurant and fatally shot him.”

Oklahoma City Police tweeted: “ALERT: The only confirmed fatality is the suspect. He was apparently shot-to-death by an armed citizen. Three citizens were injured, two of whom were shot. A large number of witnesses are detained. There is no indication of terrorism at this point.”

If episodes like this got anywhere near the saturation coverage that “successful” spree killings did, we wouldn’t have spree killings.

And people like the Reverend Nancy Nord Bence would get booed and heckled off more stages.

A South Carolina woman kills an escaped inmate who had just kicked down her back door:

The inmate was still in his orange jail jumpsuit and had grabbed a knife sharpening tool from the woman’s kitchen in Pickens as he headed toward her bedroom around 3 a.m. Tuesday, Pickens County Sheriff Rick Clark said.

“This was a big guy. If she hadn’t had a weapon there’s no telling what would have happened,” Clark said. “I gave her a big hug. I told her how proud I was of her.”

I’m trying to imagine any Metro area chiefs of police who’d do that.

Bruce McLaughlin Jr., 30, died from a gunshot to the head, Pickens County Coroner Kandy Kelley said.

McLaughlin and a second inmate, Timothy Dill, beat up two guards in an escape they had planned for days, Clark said at a news conference.

I’m not gonna call it a “Happy Ending” – killing someone is the second-worst possible outcome.

But the worst – a dead victim – is far, far worse.

Too bad gun control activists would prefer women like that to shut up and get raped to death.

The suspect is also reported to have said: “Whites don’t shoot whites.”

Busy left the Kroger, went to the parking lot, and shot Vicki Lee Jones, 67, bebore turning his attention to Dominic Rozier and his family.

Dominic Rozier. Hero.

Rozier, however, was also a carry permittee – and he engaged Bush, forcing him to disengage and flee. He was caught, and has been indicted on two counts of capital murder, with very likely federal hate crime charges on deck.

The racial angle of this story has gotten all kinds of coverage. Bush was prohibited from owning firearms legally due to a variety of previous violent violations – so clearly the shooting never happened. His state of mind is certainly in question.

What is not in question is that two good guys – one white, one black – with legal firearms and the right and will to use them – defended themselves, their families (in both cases, literally, then and there), and their community; they did it judiciously (as almost all citizen in this situations do), and they did it successfully.

The Minnesota Democrat “Farmer” Labor party wants to make that impossible. Don’t ever forget it.

Littlefield Police were called to the 900 block of West 4th Street Thursday afternoon.

A police statement said, “A male subject was armed with a knife [and] was assaulting a female and trying to take her car.” Police said Lopez also assaulted the woman’s boyfriend. Her kids were in the car.

Police quoted Lopez as saying, “This was his (expletive) car”.

“Even though she was being assaulted; the woman was trying to get her kids out of the car,” police said.

“A neighbor arrived at his home, saw the attack in progress, and armed himself with his handgun. He has a concealed handgun permit,” police said. “He came to the aid of the victims and pointed his weapon at the attacker.”

Lopez then moved away from the car and went across the street.

When police arrived, “… the attacker dropped the knife and attacked the officer.”

A motorist who shot a man acting erratically and aggressively – with a knife – after a traffic accident in Fridley last fall won’t be charged.

According to the attorney’s office, Schiffler got out of his vehicle, grabbed a woman and began forcefully groping and kissing her. He also, the attorney’s office said, stabbed at the window of a nearby car with a 4-inch knife.

Another motorist unholstered his gun and told Schiffler to stop. According to the attorney’s office, Schiffler then raised his knife and charged at the man with the gun. The man shot him three times, and Schiffler died from his injuries.

“The evidence demonstrates the shooter had no reasonable ability to further retreat, given the physical surroundings, proximity of other people and the actions of Schiffler,” the attorney’s office said in a press release.

Gun-grabbers might say that’s not the same as “justifiable” homicide. They’re right. It’s better. The cops and the county attorney believe there was no point in taking the case to court; nobody needs to prove it was justified.

I’d say “I love a happy ending” – but of course it’s not a happy ending; even insane and impaired people are human beings, usually with some sort of parents or sibling out there.

But then, so were the people that Mr. Schiffer threatended with a knife.

Four men were at a McDonald’s in Memphis’ Orange Mound neighborhood when they attempted to rob the father, police said. David Chase, who witnessed the attempted robbery from across the street and called 911, told WREG the father fought back.

“They jumped out of the car and they started fighting him and trying to take his wallet and stuff,” Chase told the news station. “He was fighting them. He dropped his baby and started fighting them and the child was just sitting on the concrete.”

Chase said he heard three to four gunshots. The father is believed to have shot at least one of the suspects.

Dave Thomas was getting ready for work Monday afternoon when he heard women screaming in his apartment building in Oswego.

Thomas, a gun instructor, peeked out the door and saw blood in the hallway. He went to his bedroom, where a handgun and an AR-15 assault-style rifle were lying on the bed. He picked up the rifle.

“I teach people how to defend themselves, and it was just a reaction to grab the AR-15,” he said.

Police said Thomas confronted a man who was stabbing another man in the apartment complex on the 100 block of Harbor Drive. The man with the knife ran off when Thomas threatened to shoot him.

“He was a half a breath away from getting his head blown off and he knew that,” Thomas, 41, said. “That’s why he put the knife down.”

Kendall County sheriff’s deputies arrived about 5 p.m. and arrested two people, the man suspected of stabbing his neighbor and a woman with him. The neighbor was treated and released from Rush Copley Medical Center in Aurora, according to the sheriff’s office.

“Had he not been in the right place at the right time, who knows what would have happened,” Cpl. Cory Waters told the media. “But he definitely stopped the attack from continuing and becoming much worse. He might have even saved either one of their lives. It could have gone really bad, even for the suspect.”

It was five years ago yestarday that Jacob Roberts – a loser and delusional narcissist – walked into the Clackamas Mall in Portland Oregon with an AR15, a pistol and a couple hundred rounds of ammunition, apparently intent on giving his pathetic excuse of a life a big finish.

He murdered two Christmas shoppers – Cindy Yuille and Steven Forsythe – and was by all accounts intent on murdering many more; the load of ammo was a dead giveaway.

Then, Nick Meli – an off-duty security guard with a carry permit and a concealed Glock – drew down on Roberts.

The media’s and law enforcement’s accounts vary from this point – a point that the media holds against the notion that Meli is a hero. But by all rational accounts, Roberts saw the gun aimed at him, and did exactly what the FBI, in its study of spree killers after Columbine, said he’d do; delusional narcissists like Roberts (as opposed to terrorists like Omar Matteen) either run away, give up, or kill themselves rather than face the consequences.

Which is what Jacob Roberts did; he retreated into a Gap store and, shortly, shot himself.

The media and Big Gun Control has done its best over the years to bury this story. Meli himself has been very reticent about being in the public eye.

But it’s the position of this blog that Meli was, and is, a hero who saved many lives that day, and kept Clackamas Mall off the list of infamy that Sandy Hook school would join three days later.

Other than different denouements, the episodes had a lot in common; mentally-ill losers who planned to leave this mortal coil in a blaze of demented, twisted “glory”; buildings full of captive victims; and the big one – both were “gun free zones”. Clackamas was posted (but, like the Mall of America, those postings were of dubious legal force, although I don’t plan on being the test case); Sandy Hook, being a school, was “gun free” by federal and state law, backed up by potential felony charges.

One of the few bits of “good” news from the Sutherland Springs mcaassacre is that it was ended by a Good Guy with a Gun.

Details are coming out now – Stephen Willeford responded to the shooting with his AR15, fired a shot that apparently found a gap in Kelley’s body army, and seized the initiative:

Willeford is being hailed as a hero. His actions may well have stopped further bloodshed. Willeford is not a member of the church where the shooting took place, but he his daughter called him and told him there was a man in body armor shooting up the church

Willeford grabbed a rifle and answered the call. He found Kelley (above) outside of the church and shot him. The surprise caused Kelley to drop his rifle, and the shooter then ran to his own SUV and fled the scene.
Johnnie Langendorff was also responding. Langendorff picked up Willeford and the two gave chase. They followed Kelley in a high speed chase and eventually caused Kelley to lose control and run off the road. There, police say Kelley shot himself in the head.

This is, of course, exactly what law enforcement now knows about spree killers; resist them with lethal force, and they usually run, give up, kill themselves, or – as in this case – all three.

Stephen Willeford managed to shoot Devin Kelley before jumping in another man’s truck and chasing him down, the Daily Mail reported.

Texas Department of Public Safety chief Freeman Martin said Willeford “grabbed his rifle and engaged the suspect” after Kelley left the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, where he opened fire with an assault rifle and killed 26 people.

And just as law enforcement teaches about mass shootings these days – if you show a mass shooter any resistance, they usually break off the attack, and either give up or kill themselves.

The man who killed at least 26 people in a Baptist church in a rural Texas town on Sunday died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Wilson County Sheriff Joe Tackitt told CBS News in an interview on Monday morning.

Tackitt said gunfire was exchanged between the gunman and two armed citizens during a vehicle chase after the shootings.

The church was a gun-free zone – naturally. But the rest of Texas was not.

Liberal hamsters love to amuse themselves by saying that there’s no civilian use for guns with 30 round magazines.

Which might be true, if you could guarantee all attackers were solo and not very persistent.

But in North Houston, three attackers fired over 40 shots at a homeowner…

…who returned fire with an AR15, killing two of the dirtballs and wounding the third in what police are calling a case of self-defense:

Wounded, the three thugs exited the vehicle and continued the pitched firefight on foot. The homeowner who is an avid marksman continued returning fire hitting all three, stopping them before they could reach his property.

One of the men was immediately killed at the scene, while the others were rushed to the hospital. A second shooter was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital, while the third is in critical condition battling for his life.

According to news reporters, aside from being an excellent marksman the Texas homeowner is licensed to carry a concealed weapon, and goes to the shooting range regularly and practices his skills with his AR-15, the weapon he usually has by his side when sitting on his porch late at night.

Instant gun experts babble that “assault rifles” are “designed to kill as many people as fast as possible”. It’s poppycock, of course; they’re designed to not run out of bullets before your attacker runs out of attacks.